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HE ‘RIGHT & LEFT’ puzzle, like many of
Azed’s specials, originated with Ximenes, and made
its first known appearance in 1948, though concatenated clues in general have a
longer history. Ximenes introduced one variation involving rhymed couplets and
word pairs of different lengths in 1962, but apart than that the only other
treatment has been Azed’s ‘Up and Down’, where the
solution pairs appear in diagonally opposite positions in a vertically split
grid. This month’s puzzle follows the standard style, with a grid only subtly
different from its two predecessors, or indeed from Ximenes’s originals.
In previous puzzles Azed
has often made the solver’s task harder by featuring similar words in the
solution pairs, such as OURARI / OUREBI in no 2330. This time he avoids such
tricks, and even makes 1 across, which spans the full grid, reasonably easy to solve.
Regular competitors may be surprised to
see PROPOSAL as one of the pair to be clued. It was set as the comp word only
nine months ago, and prior to that by Ximenes in 1959, making it the only word
to have been set three times. Hopefully Azed will
reveal in the Slip whether it was a deliberate choice. Its reappearance after
so short a time should give solvers who keep their clue-writing notes a head
start.
Solutions in the notes below are in the
order in which they are clued, and the join is marked in the clue.
1. Greetings
to those who are excited about how remaining clue answers are distributed? HITHER AND YON (hi the randy on) For once Dr Watson solved
the joining light early on and was saved the trouble of relocating all the
pencilled-in solutions to the other side of the grid. Finding INYALA at 2 down
and guessing the solution started with ‘hi’ were the steps to solving it.
7. Clumsy
lassie, cross with pastry, / is going wild with racy language TAUPIE / SYRIAC (tau pie; anag.) A good
example of combining two surfaces into a single, plausible story, though the
two parts of the clue are fairly distinct, and in this
case the meeting point is punctuated.
8. Like
a pigeon that is dead, not twitching inside / mat – cheers me INTOED / TATAMI (anag.
in i.e. d; ta-ta mi) And an example of how
difficult it can be to write a double clue with unobliging words. The different
lengths of the component clues make the join harder to find. ‘Pigeon toed’ is a
description of inward pointing feet. ‘Me’ is me2, an alternative
spelling of the musical note.
16. One fish tolerates another / being immature, number wrapped in furled genoa HASSAR / NONAGE (has sar; n in anag.) Another unlikely-sounding surface. Chambers gives ‘to suffer, endure, tolerate’ as one of 31 senses of ‘have’; it’s also used in 1 dn.
17. Tay auk flexing light coat / gobbled maigre – one records pictures YUKATA / IMAGER (anag.; anag.) Dr Watson has retained one piece of fishy knowledge as a result of failing to solve a particularly fiendish Theme and Variations puzzle in 2002, namely that a maigre and a bar are the same fish. However, a determined effort to fit ‘bar’ into the second solution proved fruitless.
3. Choice
groove in broken sherd penned / by martial poet, start of epode a tyrant ordered DRUTHERS /
TYRTAEAN (rut in anag.; anag.
inc. e) Azed makes the best of a very unpromising
pair. ‘Druthers’ is US slang for a preference (shortening of ‘I’d rather’). The
Greek poet Tyrtaeus
gives his name to a style of poetic military elegy. The join is nicely hidden.
4. One
’awking footwear, sallow / chap, eastern, turning up,
I treated as a friend
OSIER / EN AMI ((h)osier; man E, rev. + I) The key to the first clue is sallow2,
another name for the willow tree.
12. Kick
boxing set crazily imbibing narcotic stuff / ergo dizzy with close to round
delivering massive belt? SAVATE / OROGEN
(ava in anag.; anag. in on) The puns on ‘round’ and ‘belt’ provide a clever
thematic link between the two clues. ‘With close to round’ has several possible
cryptic interpretations, but here it indicates ‘on’ as a container. Ava is another
name for Polynesian intoxicant kava. The French martial art of savate
is documented, as ever, in Wikipedia.
13. Offensive
term for foreigner upsetting a Turk / (‘smutty’) that surprises me twice over KRAUT / COOMY (anag.; coo! my!) The first solution doesn’t feel quite as
offensive as some names that have slipped into previous Azed
clues and solutions (albeit very rarely), and to be fair it’s well flagged and
consistent with the overall surface reading.
Other solutions:
Across: 6. ANYONE / CERISE (ny(l)on
in ae; is in cere; who / is); 10. SCERNE / PAELLA (anag;
E in palla; boiling / seafood); 11. T-CROSS / AMATOL (RC, rev., in to SS; OT
in lama, all rev.; crucifix / explosive);
15. SORROW / CROOVE (RR o in sow; or, rev., in cove; distress /
or); 18. PYRENE / STYLES (Ne in pyre; l
in styes; extract / fashions).
Down: 1. HASTY / ACTIN (has + t, y; actin(g); rash / takin’); 2. NEANIC / INYALA (anag; hidden; savaged / antelope); 8. RECITAL / NEEDLES (cit in real; needles(s); townie / is); 9. ALTARAGE / PROPOSAL; 10. PARSNIP / STACHYS (par2 snip; anag. in SS; veg / labiate); 14. ’TWERE / TERAS (hidden, conditional form of ’twas; t + eras; reckoned / a).